No Ordinary Joe Leads Rest of World To Win

The Rest of the World beat Europe 118-116 in the EuroCup All Star Game in Limassol on Tuesday night.

In a game featuring a lot of offense, Spartak St. Petersburg's Joseph Smith drilled seven three-pointers - five of them in the first half - to lead his team to victory.

Milutin Aleksic of Proteas was a leader for Europe with 20 points.

Smith was voted MVP for the game.

"It's just an honor to be out here with so many great players," Smith said.

"I owed a big thanks to my teammates at Spartak for helping me get to this game."

Samara's Alex Scales weighed in with 23 points while sensational Frenchman Nando De Colo of Cholet poured in 24 for Europe.

The 20-year-old De Colo, who excited the crowd with his dribbling and passing, showed plenty of signs he will be in the reckoning for a place in the France squad that will play in EuroBasket Division A later this year.

He excelled with his long-range shooting, burying six of seven shots from behind the arc.

A Scales dunk stretched the Rest of the World lead to 72-64 at the start of the third quarter, but Europe came back with Milutin Aleksic helping drive the team forward.

He would go on to score 20 points in the game.

A three-ball by Dexia Mons-Hainaut's Michael Lenzly put Europe into a 97-92 lead - their biggest of the game - with 3:33 remaining in the period but they weren't able to extend the advantage.

In fact, the game remained tight the rest of the way, with De Colo's last three-pointer giving the contest its final tie at 114-114 with 3:36 left.

A Scales lay-up, and an Olumuyiwa Famutimi dunk, put the Rest of the World on top for good.

Famutimi was electric, finishing with 12 points - most of them scored with dunks and high-flying drives to the basket.